How important is SEO for a small business?
Source: PEOCompare Blog
SEO is one of the essential keys to success for any small business today.
When people ask me about my job I respond that I do SEO work for a website that compares PEO companies. Given the quizzical looks I receive from most people, I have to explain the acronyms. First, a PEO company is a professional employer organization, a company to which administrative tasks can be outsourced (what is a peo?). Second, SEO stands for search engine optimization. Hopefully, if you are reading this you have some idea about what SEO is and the value it has for your company as SEO work is essentially the crux of any online business. In the simplest of terms, search engine optimization is enhancing your online marketing; by creating content with specific terms, your company can attract a greater number of customers to your website. This, in turn, should lead to greater product or service purchases, which then should produce greater profits. However, this “then” implication rests on two truths: first, you have to target the right customers; and second, you have to be making more than you are spending on SEO.
Ultimately, both truths could be resolved with the same technique: targeting the best and most effective keywords. There are a lot of basics (specifically, creating and indexing your website) behind SEO that any small business owner should understand before developing their online presence. Personally, I would suggest reading Search Engine Optimization for Dummies. After all, when has the “…For Dummies” series led you astray? (There are several editions and while the newest edition obviously has the most-updated content, any of the books are valuable.) Ultimately, the best tip the book provides is to choose the right keywords once your website has been established. I also recommend following Jon Cooper’s blog, PointBlankSEO.com. He shares the latest link building strategies and techniques and has many experts contributing to the blog.
Think not about what defines your company (honesty, responsibility, ethics), but what defines your product – specific words that explain what you are selling that also include to whom you are selling. For example, PEOcompare provides a free PEO services matching tool to compare PEO companies. Our analytics research tells us that far more people search the term, “PEO companies” over “PEO comparison.” We, therefore, create quality content that uses the term, “PEO companies” in the text. How do we determine the best keywords? Find out in our next blog post on SEO for your small business.
